I have been want­ing to do this for ages. Cen­turies, in fact. This marks the begin­ning of a reg­u­lar blog post con­tain­ing ques­tions from emails I receive from my lovely peo­ple. It will be called “Hey Steph” which sounds a lot hip­per than “Dear Abby.”

A lot of ques­tions fil­ter­ing into my inbox can be of help to oth­ers with sim­i­lar ques­tions, hence why they’re being posted here with my pub­lic answers. And don’t worry, I’m keep­ing everyone’s last names and emails private. 

Note: I’ll be mak­ing any edits/additions and link­ing up bits as needed.

Here we go:

Okay so I fin­ished read­ing your book and the cleans­ing and par­a­site sec­tion con­fused me so can you please give me the ways you remove par­a­sites like step by step and how long as well as colon liver and gall­blader cleanses? Oh and have u ever tried the Evan newly whipped shea but­ter with vanilla if so can you tell me if you liked it? Oh and I loved you book.

Ally

Just to clar­ify, the book is not about cleanses and doesn’t cover them in detail because I don’t often rec­om­mend them. Cleanse-type pro­to­cols are really only for peo­ple who have imple­mented all the tools laid out in the book and are find­ing that they STILL have some pim­ples. Eat­ing the way I rec­om­mend is often enough to “cleanse” and I warn against doing any so-called cleanses like the “mas­ter cleanse” or “gall­blad­der flush.” They are not at all healthy or nour­ish­ing for your body. The whole idea of a cleanse is to help your body flush out stored waste, which our body does on a daily basis on its own. We can encour­age a more thor­ough release of stored waste and excess stored fat by imple­ment­ing a whole-body pro­gram involv­ing good food, phys­i­cal activ­ity, good skin care, and improv­ing stress, which is what the book is all about. If you have par­a­sites, go to the doc­tor. There are nat­ural reme­dies that can work on minor infes­ta­tions, but it is best to con­firm your infec­tion by a med­ical doc­tor and have them treated properly.

Regard­ing the Evan prod­uct, I haven’t tried it, but if you like it and your skin likes it, then that’s all I care about. ;)

First off, I just want to tell you that your blog is so awe­some and you have such great prod­uct sug­ges­tions.
I live out in the desert and I have sen­si­tive skin (the two don’t mix well) and a lot of the stuff you sug­gested really saved my skin from dry­ing out or get­ting all blotchy.
I would really like to start using all nat­ural prod­ucts for all parts of my skin reg­i­men and I was won­der­ing if you had any sug­ges­tions about any nat­ural sham­poos, deodor­ants, or hair gels?
Any sug­ges­tion would be won­der­ful. Also, I’m a guy and I have sen­si­tive skin, if those have any bear­ing on your suggestions.

Brice

You’re very wel­come and I’m glad your skin is avoid­ing the extra dry­ness of desert win­ters. Oh yes, I have sug­ges­tions. Lots. In fact, I even made a video on this and then had issues with it and decided to trash it. C’est la vie. Here we go in order of request. Nat­ural sham­poo: Acure Organ­ics. Best nat­ural sham­poo I’ve found so far, and I’ve tried dozens. It’s great for sen­si­tive skin, doesn’t leave your head oily, and is actu­ally the first sham­poo I’ve used where I don’t need to rotate another sham­poo in there to take the residue from the first one out. Aubrey is another good one, but that can be a bit finicky – you’d have to test a few of their sham­poos to see which one suits you best. Nat­ural deodor­ant: Ele­gant Rose Bou­tique. Sounds too foofy or frilly for a dude, but the stuff works and all the men in my life (that makes me sound like a polyg­a­mist, but I will assure every­one I’m not). Another deodor­ant I’ve been hear­ing about but have yet to try is Bub­ble Bee “pit putty.” If you’re in an emer­gency, just blot some bak­ing soda on your under­arms. Works won­ders. Hair gels: Gio­vanni and Sun­coat make great hair styling prod­ucts that don’t break the bank. Also, an extra tip for you. To decrease the sen­si­tiv­ity of your skin, make sure you’re eat­ing enough anti-inflammatory foods and fats. This means grass-fed beef, wild caught fish, fish oil, and coconut oil. And make sure you’re not plop­ping chlo­rine on your skin every day. A high qual­ity water fil­ter will take care of that – if you need rec­om­men­da­tions for that or any­thing else, I recently started the Epic Beauty Awards, which will be an awe­some yearly resource of the best nat­ural prod­ucts and tools avail­able. Cool, right? I know.

Sweet pota­toes don’t seem that bad for your skin, but I want your knowl­edge of them, should I avoid them fully? Also, is peanut but­ter or other legumes bad for your skin, or do you just not eat it because it’s hard to digest? Also, yacon syrup, or chicken/vegetable broth/stock.

Kelly
Good ques­tions. It really depends on your body and your goals. If some­one is try­ing to lose weight and really cut out sugar addic­tion prob­lems, then I’d say to avoid them alto­gether until the weight is lost and/or the addic­tion resolves. How­ever, sweet pota­toes are great post-workout (a solid work­out, like lift­ing weights or a full-body train­ing ses­sion) and get­ting carbs when you’re not eat­ing all the grains and crap I rec­om­mend every­one avoid if they want clear skin. Plus they taste good, and they’re high in beta carotene. Don’t go over­board and you’ll be fine. (Over­board means a whole sweet potato every day.) Reg­u­lar white pota­toes, it should go with­out say­ing, are not accept­able because 1. they’re super starchy and sug­ary and 2. they are of no nutri­tional value. Red or pur­ple pota­toes are bet­ter choices, but it’s best to avoid them alto­gether. Peanuts and other legumes are fine if you have great diges­tion and not aller­gic at all to peanuts (and you have to buy them organic oth­er­wise you’re get­ting a dose of alfa­toxin). Truth­fully, if they are cooked enough and no one is aller­gic and it’s not caus­ing any inflam­ma­tion (i.e. CRP mark­ers are low, no inci­dence of skin rashes or acne, etc.), then fine. Per­son­ally, I love peanut but­ter, but when it comes to other legumes, I’d rather eat more meat than fill up on beans. Yacon syrup…just another expen­sive way for peo­ple to feed their sugar addic­tions. It’s high in FOS so if you have diges­tive trou­bles, avoid it. Stick with ste­via or raw, unfil­tered honey in mod­er­a­tion. Grade B maple syrup is also fine in mod­er­a­tion. Stocks and broths are fine if you make them or you buy them as “clean” as pos­si­ble. No yeast extracts, no sugar, no arti­fi­cial preservatives.

Every­one have a great week­end!
~Steph  x

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